It's like Hackers but in real life!
The Telegraph has killed Prince Philip
The Telegraph newspaper accidentally published an obit of the Duke of Edinburgh, instead of reporting his retirement from official duty today. Google News headlines this morning. The headline of the article read: "HOLD HOLD HOLD Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh dies aged XXX," with the subhead: "Prince Philip waves goodbye to …
-
-
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 12:32 GMT Lee D
Re: But, but, but
Irony: I bet there's a button that goes between "hold" and "release" on their CMS anyway.
Some doughnut probably just unticked the wrong article.
You'd think it would need some kind of editorial sign-off before it went out but obviously having a two-stage publishing process was obviously too much in the way of holding back the news, eh?
I know if I was an editor, I'd want someone (sub-editors, etc.) to have to sign off and approve everything pushed to the web before it appeared publicly. And that would be AFTER the article-writer had clicked the "Publish" button.
-
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 13:52 GMT Lee D
Re: But, but, but
Then what was an article about a non-current news item doing being in the "request release" queue anyway?
Problems like this are solved by processes, not tech. Until someone says "Publish this" and then the guy above him says "Yes, this needs to be published", why should it appear on the front page at all.
If nothing else, one single rogue employee could splat any kind of junk on your front page if they wanted to leave while giving management a message...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Thursday 3rd August 2017 14:59 GMT Doctor Syntax
Re: Proof of the Illuminati
"He died from being given a Speedball by the royal doctor"
With the timing being news management so it would catch next morning's Times instead of being announced first on the wireless where it would be heard by men in pubs wearing caps - or something like that.
-
-
-
-
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 14:08 GMT Ol'Peculier
Before the Interwebs, an English cleaner was working in a TV station in Australia where they were rehearsing an obit on the Queen's death. On hearing this, she rang her mother who still lived in the UK with the news.
Mother then rings local radio station to ask if they can confirm the Queen had died. Who duly broadcast such news...
(might have been about '93 as I was working in the media sector then)
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 21:12 GMT albaleo
In the late 80s, an English language newspaper in Japan published an obituary for the Emperor Hirohito, who was ill at the time. I remember reading it on my morning break and wondering what the folk in the news office would be doing right then.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/28/world/2-pay-dearly-for-affront-to-hirohito.html
-
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 14:17 GMT Ralph the Wonder Llama
Operation Forth Bridge
Let's see - been around for ages, slightly decrepit and due to be superseded? Check. Some people have died maintaining it? Check. Probably. No longer needs painting all the time? Check. Goes on a bit? Check. Not a known promoter of minorities? Check. No longer requires a tithe? Ah. Oh well.
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 14:23 GMT Tim Brown 1
it would never have happened in my day!
I worked there starting in 1995 shortly after the Telegraph had launched (in November 1994) the UK's (World's?) first daily news website as Electronic Telegraph.
At the time, we did nightly updates taking copy from the print edition to put online. Each edition was produced by just three people to start with. On the nights I was on shift, one of my tasks was to check through the whole update for problems before putting it live.
I never, ever let any problems slip through...
and never ever had to race back to Canary Wharf in the middle of the night to fix things....
honestly....
Oh and coincidentally, the original deskspace for the site on the 11th floor of One Canada Square was right next to obituaries!
-
Thursday 3rd August 2017 14:52 GMT Nick Kew
Re: it would never have happened in my day!
Tim, I remember the Torygraph online. I was living&working in Italy at the time, and suddenly I had access to a newspaper from home. I think the Grauniad appeared around the same time, but was less usable, or perhaps carried a lot less material, 'cos it was the Torygraph that shone.
Then in about 1996 they changed it all to some dysfunctional table-driven layout. On the connections we had back then (the information dirt-track) it meant nothing would render until a whole page loaded, which was several minutes. RIP the Torygraph as a usable website: the Grauniad now did a better (or less bad) job.
-
-
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 15:44 GMT Captain DaFt
It says more about the type of "journalism" the Telegraph has, if it just makes stuff up about palace sources before the event has even happened!
This is SOP for all news agencies.
Obits for the rich, famous, and/or powerful are prepared well in advance and updated regularly so they're ready to go the instance they get the word that someone important has joined the choir invisible.
This wasn't supposed to have been released until they'd heard from the palace sources, with date and time added.
Someone at the Telegraph screwed up, bigtime!
-
Biting the hand that feeds IT
